Kurt Thomas’ demands to the Knicks will be clear as day on July 1: long-term or later.

Stung by a reduced role in the playoffs, Thomas,

the Knicks’ free agent power forward/center, told his agent yesterday over a breakfast meeting in his hometown Dallas he will likely say goodbye to the Knicks this summer if they don’t offer him a deal of five years or the maximum six.

“He clearly has interest in returning to New York,” agent Jerry Hicks told The Post. “But his question has to do with what New York’s plans are for the future. He wants to know if he’s part of their long-term future. The Knicks should know Kurt wants a long-term deal. He doesn’t consider two-to-three years long-range. He wants a longer deal. He wants something we all want, security. If he doesn’t get a long-term deal, that wouldn’t be the ideal situation for him.”

Thomas would then test the market and probably could land a short-term deal with a club with cap room for more bucks.

Hicks can’t speak to the Knicks until July 1. Since they are capped out, the Knicks can only offer Thomas the early Bird exception, eligible for players who have been with their team for just two seasons. Under the early Bird, the Knicks can only go as high as about $3.7 million in the first year but non-compounding 12.5 percent raises take effect each year. On a six-year package, the early Bird comes to $29 million and a healthy $4.8M annual average.

However, the deal is much less attractive in the short term and Thomas believes he can net more somewhere else with no restrictions.

Thomas didn’t have a distinguished playoff and could rebound better, but Knicks aren’t teeming with healthy, young big men. Losing Thomas, who recently has proven more durable than any of their forwards or centers, would be a shame. The Knicks likely will have to meet Thomas’ demands. However, while a Knick executive said in Feburary the plan is to offer Thomas the early Bird, there was no discussion on whether the offer would be the maximum six years.

Knicks GM Scott Layden said yesterday “I never discuss contracts in the media.”

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Oh, to be a fly on the wall next Thursday at Purchase College. The Post has learned the Knicks, who pick 22nd, have invited local college point guard stars, Hofstra’s Speedy Claxton and St. John’s’ Erick Barkley, to go mano-a-mano in a predraft workout June 22.

Knicks loved how Claxton looked at the Chicago camp last week. Both should go middle of the first round.

“I’m all for them getting thrown out there together,” Claxton’s agent Bill Duffy said. “Throw the meat in the middle of the court and let them go at it.”

The Knicks don’t have their own second-round pick (50th overall), trading it to Utah as compensation for Layden breaking his contract. But the Knicks will exercise their option and use Boston’s second-round pick (39th) from the 1997 Walter McCarty trade.